The goal of English Language Arts is to produce students who are college- and career-ready in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. As students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, they are able to exhibit with increasing fullness and regularity these capacities of the literate individual.

• They demonstrate independence: Students become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials.
• They build strong content knowledge: They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking
• They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline: Students adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. They set and adjust the purpose for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use as warranted by the task. They appreciate nuances, such as how the composition of an audience should affect tone when speaking and how the connotations of words affect meaning.
• They comprehend as well as critique: Students are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners.  They work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.
• They value evidence: Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.
• They use technology and digital media strategically and capably: Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.
• They come to understand other perspectives and cultures: Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds.

ELA Curriculum Standards

The North Carolina State Board of Education has adopted the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. The new standards define the knowledge and skills students should have throughout their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school fully prepared for college and careers. The standards:

• are aligned with college and work expectations;
• are clear, understandable and consistent;
• include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
• build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
• are informed by other top-performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in a global economy and society; and
• are evidence and research-based. 
• Common Core Standards for Grades 6-8

ELA Resources

The Parents’ Guides to Student Success were developed in response to the Common Core Standards in English language arts and mathematics. 

These materials were created by teachers, parents, education experts, and others from across the country, to provide clear, consistent expectations for what students should be learning at each grade in order to be prepared for college and career.

• Parents' Guide for Grade 6
• Parents' Guide for Grade 7
• Parents' Guide for Grade 8
• Staff Resources

On June 2, 2010, North Carolina adopted the Common Core State Standards in K-12 Mathematics and K-12 English Language Arts released by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. With the adoption of these state-led education standards, North Carolina is in the first group of states to embrace clear and consistent goals for learning to prepare children for success in college and work.

• Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (K-12)

6th Grade

In Grade 6, instructional time should focus on four critical areas:

1. Connecting ratio and rate to whole number multiplication and division and using concepts of ratio and rate to solve problems;
2. Completing understanding of division of fractions and extending the notion of number to the system of rational numbers, which includes negative numbers;
3. Writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations; and
4. Developing an understanding of statistical thinking.

7th Grade

In Grade 7, instructional time should focus on four critical areas:

1. Developing an understanding of and applying proportional relationships;
2. Developing an understanding of operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations;
3. Solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions, and working with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume; and
4. Drawing inferences about populations based on samples.

8th Grade

In Grade 8, instructional time should focus on three critical areas:

1. Formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations, including modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations;
2. Grasping the concept of a function and using functions to describe quantitative relationships;
3. Analyzing two- and three-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence, and understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem.

Union County Public Schools believes that engaging students in inquiry-based instruction is a critical way of developing a conceptual understanding of the science content that is vital for success in the twenty-first century. 

The process of scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design should not be taught nor tested in isolation of the core concepts drawn from physical science, earth science and life science. A seamless integration of science content, scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design will reinforce in students the notion that "what" is known is inextricably tied to "how" it is known.

A well-planned science curriculum provides opportunities for inquiry, experimentation and technological design. Teachers, when teaching science, should provide opportunities for students to engage in "hands-on/minds-on" activities that are exemplars of scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design.

Curriculum Standards

Physical Science (P) Earth Science (E) Life Science (L)

• 6th Grade Essential Standards
• 7th Grade Essential Standards
• 8th Grade Essential Standards

Our mission is to ensure that our school district prepares students to become productive 21st-century citizens. We strive to accomplish this goal by giving students an understanding of history, government, economics and other social sciences.  We actively engage students in the learning process and prepare them to become life-long learners and problem-solvers in a global society.

Curriculum Standards

• North Carolina DPI Middle School Social Studies Standards and Support Documents

Student Resources

EBSCO HOST is a powerful online reference system accessible via the Internet or direct connection. It offers a variety of proprietary full text databases and popular databases from leading information providers. The comprehensive databases range from general reference collections to specially-designed, subject-specific databases for public, academic, medical, corporate and school libraries. These may serve to be very beneficial to students.

Parent Resources

North Carolina Middle School Social Studies focuses not only on the teaching and learning of history, geography, economics, culture, and environmental literacy but also on important social studies concepts.

The North Carolina Essential Standards for Social Studies are organized and taught conceptually.  This means that teachers make a conscious effort to help students make connections between a variety of topics being taught in their Social Studies class, other classes, and their greater national and global community.

For instance, 7th-grade students will learn about the French Revolution.  But, they will gain a larger understanding of “Revolution” as a concept.  Revolution is marked by conflict and change.  This conceptual framework can be employed later in the course when students discuss the Russian revolution.  Moreover, it can be applied in the 8th grade when they delve into the American Revolution and the industrial revolution.  But, even more importantly they can use this conceptual framework to understand revolutions occurring in the world today.

Middle school parents can play an active role in helping further their child’s Social Studies education in a variety of ways such as:

• Taking trips to museums (real or virtual)
• Discussing current events
• Encouraging curiosity about the world
• Exploring your city and state.

Access the NC Essential Standards.  It is from these essential standards that UCPS teacher committees have constructed the curriculum guides that will be used in your child's classroom. 

Staff Resources

• Social Studies Resources for Staff

World language skills are key to global competence, national security, career advantages and travel. World language skills also improve first language skills.

Languages Offered

The languages offered vary per middle school but might include:

• Chinese
• French
• Spanish  

Curriculum Standards

• North Carolina DPI Middle School World Languages Standards and Support Documents

Program Models

World Language programs vary per school for the length of study and languages offered. Programs vary between:

• Exploratory courses
• Beginning courses
• Continuing courses
• High School Level One courses for high school graduation credit

High School Level One is available for high school graduation credit at some middle schools for Chinese, French or Spanish.

6th Grade Programs

6th grade programs are exploratory in nature usually lasting six weeks. Exploratory programs permit students to understand the basics of language learning that will help them decide on their path to more formal language study.

• The French and Spanish 6th grade program topics include: greetings, introductions, classroom instructions and objects, numbers and dates, describing friends and family as well as some basic actions.
• The Chinese 6th grade program topics include: greetings, introductions, classroom instructions and objects, numbers and ages, facial features, describing people’s height and facial features.  Students learn the fundamentals of character strokes and are able to read and write some basic characters while relying on the phonetic version of the language, pinyin.

7th and 8th Grade Programs

7th and 8th grade beginning programs focus on understanding and using the language while laying the foundation for high school credit programs.

• The French 7th–8th grade program topics include: introductions, numbers, classroom instructions, numbers, greetings, ages, likes and dislikes, preferred activities, classroom subjects and times, school objects, colors, sports, hobbies, weather, months, seasons, foods and beverages, places to go, things to do, and describing family members. Amount covered depends on the duration of the course.
• The Spanish 7th–8th grade program topics include: greetings, introductions, dates and days, weather, seasons,  time, introductions, classroom instructions, likes and dislikes, personality descriptions, school classes, foods and beverages, good health, leisure activities, sports, places in the community, families, celebrations, age and ordering in a restaurant. Amount covered depends on the duration of the course.
• The Chinese 7th–8th grade program topics include: greetings, introductions, countries, nationalities, family members, numbers, homes, foods and drinks, students and school classes, dates and days of the week, and time.  Students learn the fundamentals of character strokes and are able to read and write some basic characters while using the phonetic version of the language, pinyin, as a pronunciation tool.

World Languages Resources

• Staff Resources